The pictures of a sulking Carlos Tevez accompanying stories of a terminal bust-up with Roberto Mancini threaten to destroy the image he created, over the years, of a jolly football elf. This is not a good thing. He may not like Manchester very much but Carlos Tevez is a lover, not a fighter. The pint-sized, big-grinned Argentinian has spent much of his career illuminating football matches with his technical wizardry and nonstop feats of physical derring-do, and it would be a scandal if after all he's done for us he were to be remembered in this country as the moping sub-sulk that he has suddenly become.

Over the years Tevez has done plenty to make us smile – like this, this and indeed this. So here, for a bit of contrast amid all the tales of doom, misery and hatred, are 10 things that make Carlos Tevez smile.

1. Marbella

Tevez is a big fan of Marbella, a place that came up in conversation this June while he was talking to the Argentinian talk-show host Susana Giménez. "Of course I would buy a house in Marbella," he said. "In Marbella you can buy a house by the beach, relax there and later you can go there on holiday and everything. In Manchester there are two restaurants and everything's small. It rains all the time. You can't go anywhere!" It's not just words either – he spent his summer holiday there last year. Well, one of them.

2. London

"I like the food. I especially enjoy fish and chips," he said while at West Ham, pausing only to pull on his pearly king costume and belt out a chorus of Knees Up Mother Brown on the pub piano. "And the weather is mild, not as cold as I expected."

3. Golf

"I took up playing golf in England," says Tevez. "I wasn't playing football when I arrived. I couldn't speak or understand a word of English. It was cold out so I had just been going to training and then coming home for the rest of the day crying that I wanted to leave. So I needed a distraction and that's how I took up golf." There you go – golf: better than sitting alone, crying. Not a bad little slogan.

4. Street football

"We didn't have football boots and we used a broken tennis ball instead of a football," says Tevez of his deprived football upbringing. Not just a tennis ball, note, but a broken tennis ball. "I didn't use a proper ball until I was 11. Street football is the greatest thing in the world. There is just you and your friends against the rest. If someone feels he has to stick a foot in your throat, he will." We were with you until the foot/throat business.

5. Himself

Tevez still carries the scars of a serious scalding when he was an infant, and has teeth damaged in a childhood fight. "I won't have plastic surgery," he says. "You either take me as I am or you don't. The scars are part of who I was then and still am. The same goes for my teeth. I won't change the way I am." Don't go changin', Carlitos.

6. Oasis

Tevez – sometime singer in a band called Piola Vago – converted Lionel Messi to the disbanded Mancunians' tuneful indie-drawl last year. "On the plane on the way to the World Cup Carlitos made me listen to their first two albums," said Messi. "I have to say I wasn't expecting much but it is some of the best material I've ever heard. They are absolutely amazing." During the tournament Noel Gallagher was invited to visit the Argentina dressing room. "I went outside with everything out to look for a towel and in front of me was Gallagher," Carlitos explained. "So I went to greet him, naked." Gallagher, in turn, promised to name his then-unborn child after the player. "If it's a boy it's definitely going to be called Carlos. Yeah, without a doubt. Or just Tevez." The child, born last October, was indeed a boy. He was called Sonny Patrick. Just in case City fans think Tevez let them down first.

7. Roger Federer

"I went to watch Federer live. I wanted to see if he could be so good. And he is that good!" In actual fact he wasn't – at the ATP World Tour Finals in London two years ago Tevez watched Federer lose in straight sets to his fellow Argentinian, Juan Martín Del Potro. At the end of the match Federer disappeared meekly into the dressing rooms while Del Potro invited Tevez to join him on court for a knock-up, in which we learned that Tevez is terrible at tennis (which perhaps is why he kept breaking his tennis balls as a child).

8. Patrice Evra

The Frenchman was Tevez's best friend at Old Trafford. "I get on particularly well with Patrice Evra," he revealed. Evra, meanwhile, says: "I know him. I still go to his house and I know he still loves United. I tell him he should still be with us. If, one day, he wins the championship and the Champions League with City, I will say, 'Fine, you made a good move Carlito'. But until then … I just speak the truth." What Evra's saying today is anyone's guess.

9. His former clubs

Manchester United: "Every single thing related to Old Trafford is amazing. When I was a little kid I dreamed of playing in a real field, but I never imagined something as fantastic as this." West Ham: "I lived there for one year and it was like home for me because the fans were so sensational. West Ham will always be a special club for me." Corinthians: "His dream and mine is to see him back with Corinthians," says his agent Kia Joorabchian. Boca Juniors: "I have had, and always have, Boca Juniors in my heart. I have played for Boca before and I will not rule out returning to them in the future." So all City have to do to return to his affections, then, is let him leave.